When you spend time observing your thoughts, you start to realise that that's all they are - thoughts. And then you notice things about them - not just their content, but also their emotional payload, their frequency, patterns in which ones you have when and why.

Monday is Red magazine's first #RedMonday, a focus on all positive things for mental health on the most trying day of the week. The idea is to make everyone in the office - along with all our Red family (readers, associates, colleagues, supporters) - to try out meditation, see if it might become our new healthy habit.

Travel is such a rich area for mindfulness. It's driven partly by curiosity, an interest in what's out there, and partly the essential need to take time out from routine. In a sense it's a bit like the practice of meditation... Here are a few tips we've put together to help you be a more mindful traveller.

The added benefit of a quick mindful moment is that you put yourself in a frame of mind where you're open to and curious about the present moment. When you do that right before you go and do something you've never done before, you're much more likely to actually enjoy whatever it is you're about to do next. Imagine living a life where you could pretty much always enjoy new experiences!

"If we are connected to that place, then the violence and all the things we're seeing in the world would not make sense," continued Huffington. "With mindfulness in schools and the movement in corporations, it gives the most stubborn of sceptics proof. There is no trade-off between productivity and achievement in taking the time to connect to this place."

Did you know that in western countries around 14 to 29% of people are likely to suffer from an anxiety problem in their lifetime? If anxiety is something that affects you personally, or someone you know, you probably understand the harm and misery it can cause.

To get the maximum benefit from all that effort, we just need to think about, and apply, the five components of mindful exercise. Try bringing your awareness to them the next time you workout, and notice the change in how you feel.

Ask 5 people to tell you the 10 things they think you're really great at. Paint it loud and proud and don't brush it off. In there lies to the clue to what you'd be good at, and again, you might not be doing it in your day job.

So whenever this time of year rolls around and I'm getting reflective on what this year taught me, or what I can attempt to do better next year (as always: more exercise, less worry, more comfort-zone-exiting, less overanalysing) - I notice the random highlights that stick with me, the moments which remind me of the obvious 'lessons' I want to hold onto going forwards.

Having just found myself in the second cycle of burnout in just 9 months, with the second being more severe than the first, I started to consider that perhaps it wasn't the result of my inadequacies, but instead the pace i had set myself to achieve my goals